System and method of remote fax interconnect technology

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for the virtualization, aggregation, and distributed processing of facsimile communications. The Remote FAX Interconnect known as etherFAX® is a system and method that allows for the reception and delivery of information based on cloud computing infrastructure to or from one or more facsimile systems using Internet/web based communication protocols such as HTTP(S) as the transport between a facsimile capable application or hardware and the remotely accessible etherFAX® services.

We claim: 
     
       1. A virtualized facsimile adapter configured to interoperate with a facsimile server, the facsimile server being of the type that provides communications logic that receives electronic items over a digital network from a requester, provides a queue of received items awaiting transmission to at least one peer facsimile device, and uses hardware and/or software to convert queued electronic items into facsimile format transmissions to at least one peer facsimile device, the virtualized facsimile adapter comprising:
 a virtual facsimile driver configured to reside on the facsimile server, the virtual facsimile driver accessing stored configuration information identifying a remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource, the virtual facsimile driver being further configured to access the identified remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource over at least one of a networked data port and a networked data channel; 
 a main processing loop configured to check the facsimile server queue and determine in response to the checking when the queue contains any electronic items that need to be sent by facsimile to at least one peer facsimile device; 
 a binder that, upon the main processing loop determining the queue contains an electronic item that needs to be sent by facsimile to at least one peer facsimile device, binds to the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel and delivers digital information representing the electronic item over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel to the remote network-accessible transmitting resource for facsimile transmission by the remote network-accessible transmitting resource to the at least one peer facsimile device; and 
 a status monitor that communicates with the remote network-accessible transmitting resource, the status monitor monitoring the status of the facsimile transmittal by the remote network-accessible transmitting resource to the at least one peer facsimile device and communicating status information to the requester over the network. 
 
     
     
       2. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the virtual facsimile driver includes a facsimile receiver that receives facsimile information over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel and provides it to a facsimile server receive queue for delivery to an intended recipient. 
     
     
       3. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the virtual facsimile driver includes an authenticator that authenticates to the remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel. 
     
     
       4. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the virtualized facsimile adapter is configured to selectively (a) submit facsimile information, (b) cancel a facsimile operation, (c) monitor/report progress of a facsimile operation, and (d) check for received/inbound facsimile information. 
     
     
       5. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the binder selectively binds with any of plural available data ports/channels on an as-needed basis. 
     
     
       6. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the virtualized facsimile driver comprises software that replaces specialized facsimile server hardware. 
     
     
       7. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the adapter communicates with applications including email clients via facsimile server rules and protocols. 
     
     
       8. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  further including a multilayer encrypter that uses multilayer encryption to secure communication with the remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource. 
     
     
       9. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel is configured to traverse the Internet. 
     
     
       10. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 1  wherein the virtualized facsimile driver is configured to operate behind a firewall using a secure Internet communications protocol. 
     
     
       11. A virtualized facsimile adapter configured to interoperate with computer system that provides a queue of received items awaiting transmission to at least one peer facsimile device, the virtualized facsimile adapter comprising:
 a virtual facsimile driver configured to access stored configuration information identifying a remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource, the virtual facsimile driver being further configured to access the identified remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource over at least one of a networked data port and a networked data channel; 
 a main processing loop configured to determine whether the queue contains any electronic items that need to be sent by facsimile to at least one peer facsimile device; 
 a binder that, upon the main processing loop determining the queue contains an electronic item that needs to be sent by facsimile to at least one peer facsimile device, binds to the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel and delivers digital information representing the electronic item over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel to the remote network-accessible transmitting resource for facsimile transmission by the remote network-accessible transmitting resource to the at least one peer facsimile device; and 
 a status monitor that communicates with the remote network-accessible transmitting resource, the status monitor monitoring the status of the facsimile transmittal by the remote network-accessible transmitting resource to the at least one peer facsimile device and communicating status information to the requester over the network. 
 
     
     
       12. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the virtual facsimile driver includes a facsimile receiver that receives facsimile information over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel and provides it for delivery to an intended recipient. 
     
     
       13. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the virtual facsimile driver includes an authenticator that authenticates to the remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource over the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel. 
     
     
       14. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the virtualized facsimile adapter is configured to selectively (a) submit facsimile information, (b) cancel a facsimile operation, (c) monitor/report progress of a facsimile operation, and (d) check for received/inbound facsimile information. 
     
     
       15. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the binder selectively binds with any of plural available data ports/channels on an as-needed basis. 
     
     
       16. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the virtualized facsimile driver comprises software that replaces specialized facsimile transmission hardware. 
     
     
       17. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the adapter communicates with applications via facsimile transmission rules and protocols. 
     
     
       18. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  further including a multilayer encrypter that uses multilayer encryption to secure communication with the remote network-accessible facsimile communicating resource. 
     
     
       19. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the at least one of the networked data port and the networked data channel is configured to traverse the Internet. 
     
     
       20. The virtualized facsimile adapter of  claim 11  wherein the virtualized facsimile driver is configured to operate behind a firewall using a secure Internet communications protocol.